A Southwest flight took off from a closed runway, forcing workers to clear out
CNN
Airport employees in Portland, Maine, were forced to clear out of the way when a Southwest Airlines jet on the morning of June 25 took off from a closed runway, according to air traffic control recordings.
Airport employees in Portland, Maine, were forced to clear out of the way when a Southwest Airlines jet on the morning of June 25 took off from a closed runway, according to air traffic control recordings. Controllers and pilots warned the crew of Southwest 4805 several times that the runway was closed, the recordings made by LiveATC.net show. The incident is now under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration, and Southwest says it is engaged with both regulators. For the last several months the runway has been closed overnight for a taxiway construction project, and it reopens each morning at 5:45 a.m., according to the Portland International Jetport. A controller said on the recordings that the tower is also closed overnight. “There’s an airport vehicle,” one voice warned over the radio. Said another: “The Southwest pulling on to 29, just so you know there is a vehicle on the runway and it is still closed.” But the Southwest pilots apparently never heard the warnings. They were recorded communicating on a different radio frequency with regional air traffic controllers near Boston.